Welcome to Neufer's Mad Thoughts

Thank you for calling, er, I mean, thank you for reading the mad thoughts of me. If you are wondering just what the mad means, be it, ANGRY mad or CRAZY mad, well, that will probably just depend on my mood and what I'm rambling on about. Most of what you will read will be unedited, straight from my head to my keyboard and to your eyes so should I offend, upset or anger you, by all means, yell at me through the screen, leave me angry comments and feel better for doing so. I promise never to respond as I have found it's just not worth my time to respond to angry people I have never met. :) Have a nice day!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Wait, what do you mean I didn't get the job? I have all the qualifications! I am the Queen of my home, why not the rest of the universe? Oh fine, then be that way!

I'll just stay the Queen of the Neuferland Zoo and you will still bow down before me when you come into my home!

What? What do you mean you won't bow down before me? It's my ZOO! Oh fine, then at least go check these links below and buy something if anything catches your eye! And spread the word to all your friends, family, enemies, frenemies, total strangers, twitter feeds, facebook friends, myspace friends and anyone else you can think of, kay? :)

For now I will forgive your insolence in not bowing down to my greatness but don't push my patience too far! :)

As you can probably tell, I'm feeling a little better. I still have moments and sometimes days, like yesterday, I was just on edge for no real reason but I have good people who help remind me about the important things in life, like my kids, my health, my well being. It's all good and will continue to be that way.

As for a job, while I probably won't be getting a call for Queen of the Universe anytime soon, I am still looking. It's not easy, between my back and my inability to either sit nor stand for long periods or not being able to pick up more than 20 pounds without it screaming bloody murder at me, it makes the pickings slim and then I'm competing with 50 other people for the same position. It's disheartening when you put out 20 applications and don't even get one call back. I'm over qualified for most jobs and don't even get a chance to explain but hey, whatcha gonna do? Smile and move on to the next application.

I do miss the days of walking into a business, shaking someone's hand and talking to them face to face and that being a BIG part of your application before you even looked at a paper one. Oh well, again, such is life.

I do have two stores over at Cafe Press, will possibly be adding more as I find more pictures and such. If I can get these two up and running I might be able to upgrade them and get everything into one shop, that would be nice! :)

So please, go check them out, tell me what you think and for the two lovely people that actually read this blog, thank you! :)

Friday, May 14, 2010

I know, I know! I'm sorry!!! Okay, I'm not really but hey, I could take a stab at some sense of responsibility for not being her, right? No? Okay, I won't, I was busy, I have a life, I have things to do, like play Endless Blue Ocean and watch West Wing and look for a job. Yeah, still looking for a job. I know what job I would like to have right now after this past week.

The job that would be good for me is to go in and teach others what customer service is about. I mean, seriously, in this poor economy and people hanging onto their money more than ever, you would think that customer service would be a pretty high priority to most businesses since new business is almost non-existent and repeat business is your biggest money maker right now. But still, for some businesses it would seem they not only take the attitude that the customer is never right but dang-it I think I'll humiliate them at the same time, just for kicks and giggles! Which reminds me, I need to make a call to Radio Shack in the mall, be right back.

Okay, I'm back. Now the reason I called them is because while "technically" they didn't do anything wrong, they followed policy and did what they were supposed to do, it was the "way" they handled the situation at hand. I won't go into details but let's just say because one person didn't have the common sense and decency to apologize to my daughter, she no longer wants to shop there. Now there was no real reason for him to apologize since he didn't do anything wrong, he was merely following set rules and regulations but when you have a 14 year old teenage girl at your counter, very upset and distraught over something, the first words you should utter are, "I'm sorry....." followed by why you can or cannot do as she is requesting. Every other store they went into with the problem had an apology and sympathy for the situation, every store but Radio Shack. This upset Ellie and she noticed it. It made a difference to her and how she views that store now. I just talked to "Bob" (yes, his real name) and explained what happened and told him that while the guy was just doing his job, there could have been a little more sympathy on their part. He agreed 100%, said he would talk to his staff and told me to tell Ellie that from now on she was to ask for him and he would make sure she was taken care of. That is good customer service.

Another example of good customer service was the Comfort Inn we stayed in while in Pittsburgh. I wrote a letter explaining about our bad experience in the restaurant the last night and my poor experience during check out (was never asked how my stay was and even when I brought up the restaurant experience, nothing from the desk clerk).

I wrote an email to the manager and explained my experience and why I felt it was important for these issues to be addressed. She emailed back that not only is she refunding our restaurant charge but she's also using my letter as a tool during their next customer service training session.

I go around, I watch, I listen and I think to myself, "You know, the customer is NOT always right, but you need to make them think they are so they won't leave and take their business elsewhere." I watch sales people in stores and I just want to walk up and say, "Here, let me show you how to finish this sale." Or watch customer service in action and so want to step in and apologize for the store when I see the customer getting more and more upset yet the employee is doing nothing to temper the situation.

Maybe that will be my first big book, "The Customer Is NOT Always Right! - You just have to make them think they are." Trademark and copyright symbols here. :)

Musings of a Mad Woman (is she angry or just crazy, guess you'll have to read it to find out!) who is raising 3 kids, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 fish and a bird in the Zoo. Nothing hidden, nothing held back, enjoy!